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[sn00zer]

Is there some sort of massive restructuring going on or something? Last E3 Sony made it look like everything was peaches and cream and that devs were excited to work on new hardware. Cue talks of hundreds of studios lining up to work on PS4.

Then Sony Santa Monica moved studios, started hiring, then laid off 50 of its staff. Stig leaves, then we have two huge Uncharted devs leaving, Infamous lead game dev leaves, Driveclub goes "back to the drawing board" lead game designer leaves, three of Sony's World Wide Studios have more layoffs.

So what the hell is going on? Sony seemed to be making a PS2-like comeback, well they certainly advertised as such, and with HUGE PS4 sales you would think first party games would be a lock. But damn the wind has just dropped from the sails.....kinda depressing all around.

 

[Guevara]

Normal turnover combined with heightened scrutiny?

 

[Loudninja]

Edit:I removed Mort posts because they were wrong and hurtful.

 

[stuminus3]

"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

 

[Artex]

I think there is nothing to read into.

Edit: What Mort said.

 

[Prince Vultan]

Restructuring.

Also despair.

 

[Heshinsi]

Wake me up when the games stop coming. It's like people weren't around at the start of the last gen. Similar thing happened then too.

 

[Ilúvatar]

Normal cycle of things. Egos get big, people leave. Projects are completed, people leave.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

What did Stig was 100 Million on?

 

[Jinfash]

The curse of Orth.

 

[Stare-Bear]

They will get loads more of 3rd party support this gen. They have the most powerful and most popular console of this generation. The Xbox brand isn't "cool" anymore.

 

[sn00zer]

.

I guess its just poor timing all around then?......and damn I hate thinking of all of those art assets going to waste on the Stig game

 

[HoodWinked]

i think this is the sort of thing that has been happening in the past but because of social media it just gets out more.

 

[FHIZ]

I don't know, but we should all speculate the worst, because that's certainly constructive!

 

[Yoda]

Until some insider sheds some light on to it all we can do is speculate. I doubt its regualr turnover given how sudden some high-profile departures have been. These guys don't get paid all that much in the grand scheme of things, so I don't think it is budgetary either. Most likely their first-party studios have some new strategic business plan which we aren't keen on the details of yet and said people either disagreed or out outlived their purpose.

 

[Raistlin]

Normal turnover combined with heightened scrutiny?

probably some poaching too

 

[SJRB]

I don't see how whatever is going on "behind the scenes" has any relevance to the so-called Sony comeback. The PS4 being succesful doesn't mean studios can do as they please and just endlessly expand.

Layoff, people leaving and projects getting axed is nothing new, it just gets more media attention thanks to social media and people constantly looking for news tidbits.

This whole faux concern that "wind is out of the sails" is silly, don't act like all games have been cancelled and it's all doomed. You think the average consumer gives a fuck about layoffs or studio people leaving? Or about completely unknown projects being canceled for whatever reason? Or that this never happened previous gens?

 

[outunderthestars]

New generation makes for a good time to change up your studio structure and management. You don't want to do this before launching your new platform so you hold off until the launch is over.

 

[FairXchange]

Restructuring to have half a chance at being profitable in the games space. They need to make better 1st party games, not more of them.

 

[RiverBed]

.

Really?
Wow. Just wow...

 

[disappeared]

Omelettes and eggs.

 

[entremet]

Most gamers barely know who these are, OP.

Like Gueverra said, industry turnover is common. I'm surprised it's not higher in the VG industry due to burnout and crunch.

 

[belvedere]

Combine them together and you get glenn beck with a chalkboard.

Perfectly illustrated.

 

[Exotoro]

I don't know, but we should all speculate the worst, because that's certainly constructive!

you're left with a bigger payoff and surprise when things do work out

 

[Zios]

Game industry is crap like many others. If the studios/game direction is crap, the big shots do not want to be part of it for 4+ years so they leave.

 

[Terrell]

Normal cycle of things. Egos get big, people leave. Projects are completed, people leave.

Unless you're Nintendo. That they escape this "normal cycle" unscathed is pretty fucking amazing, outside that major Retro shakeup shortly after their acquisition. Even when someone leaves like Sakurai, they don't actually leave.

But in the West especially, this is pretty normal-ish. I think people are alarmed just by how it all seems so tightly clustered together.

 

[anddo0]

Really?
Wow. Just wow...

That posted will be quoted a lot me thinks.

Stig and a 100mill dollar game? wow indeed.
The Evo guy makes sense too. It (Driveclub) went from launch to not even having a release date.

 

[Ark]

GAF hyperbole in full swing.

 

[Canis lupus]

Preparing for a new era, shaking off some assets and people and restructure. It's painful now but it's gotta pay off in the long run.

 

[Trevelyon]

The Stig stuff is insane. Rebooted three fucking times, a 100 million dollar lemon. Sony is the like the shiniest rotten apple you ever saw, so much inner turmoil and mismanagement.

 

[Mr.Marston]

I'm struggling to see how any of this is a big deal.

 

[BadWolf]

.

Thanks for posting this, great read.

 

[GloriousBagel]

I guess professionals can't seek out new opportunities or some projects can't be scrapped.

lets all panic, say "Sony is doomed" and hail X1 as our new console choice.

 

[kiguel182]

Is there a full story of that 100 million dollar project? First time I'm reading about it and I would love to know more.

 

[FinalStageBoss]

Nothing. People come and go all the fucking time. Damn gaf hyperbole.

 

[Chobel]

100 million dollars? Holy shit!

 

[daman824]

They are deciding which franchises are worth keeping and which aren't.

I can definitely see sony cutting down on the amount of first party games in order to give stuff like last of us 2 and god of war 4 larger budgets/more attention.

 

[BY2K]

.

Well, spending 100 million on a game that fails QA on every front is a huge freaking problem.

 

[Ol No Bones]

We didn't even get an enhanced 4k rubber ducky demo with ray tracing and better water physics. I thought there was a problem when this wasn't at E3. This was a big miss on Sony's part. Since this was missing I knew there was something wrong. I bought into the hype and bought a Ps4, now every studio is getting shut down and we still have yet to see a rubber ducky demo. I think its time to abandon ship. I wish GAF didn't give me this false confidence in the PS4.

 

[noobasuar]

Sony as a whole is financially in the shitter. These changes were bound to happen sooner or later.

 

[Nirolak]

AAAA gaming doesn't leave much room for either risk or failure.

Consolidating to a small number of retail mega blockbusters is generally seen as the safe approach, and not everyone fits with that.

Square Enix did this shift recently as an example.

 

[StuBurns]

I think none of the departures matter to me, UC3 was crap, GoW3 wasn't very good, DC was barely maintaining 30fps with one car on the track, etc.

But Jamie Griesemer is a notable loss. I don't think SS was a considerable step up in combat design ironically, but he has a pretty impeccable CV, and I'd like to have seen him go on to head a project at SP. He does have a tendency to move around though, so I don't think it was really part of any 'exodus'.

 

[leroidys]

.

Even if this is 100% true, it still doesn't bode well for SCEA in particular, and WWS.

I'm pretty miffed that sony has shown almost nothing beyond the launch titles and the order yet. I've just been assuming they're holding back, but to show off the morpheus without even a prototype of an exclusive is... worrying. I fear that the worldwide studious "comeback" talk from late last year was far off the mark.

 

[iceatcs]

Maybe they are way too expensive.

Everyone nowaday can make AAA quality because better access to SDK.

 

[EatinOlives]

Wasn't there an IGN "article" on this just yesterday?

That said, nothing in particular. Everybody's just retooling at the same time.

 

[Sandfox]

I don't know, but we should all speculate the worst, because that's certainly constructive!

Isn't that how the internet works?

 

[evilromero]

I guess professionals can't seek out new opportunities or some projects can't be scrapped.

lets all panic, say "Sony is doomed" and hail X1 as our new console choice.

I think the important takeover is these are directors and leads leaving in the middle of development. That is newsworthy.

 

[Yaoibot]

GAF hyperbole in full swing.

Except IGN has hyperbolitis as well. They just ran some shit article about the same as this topic today, or the day before.

People believe what they want to believe.

 

[Zok310]

Most people move on after 5-10 years with a company.
Last year at my job we lost about 15 out of 35 people from jan-dec, people were just leaving left and right.
I was happy as hell because in the end I got promoted 2 times in 1 year.
Out of the 15, 4 were terminated as for the rest, they just left on their own. This was a corporate environment btw.

 

[Village]

Sony isn't just the ps4.

Sony from what I understand, lost a lot of money actually.